Order Only Private Message to Colin Creevey and Frank Longbottom

[alt_poppy]

It was lovely to see you yesterday. (You, too, Frank, but it's Mr Creevey I'm chiefly addressing here.)

And I was not only impressed, but most interested in the drawings you shared with me. Your eye for portraits is truly remarkable. And your choice of moments that capture the personality and depth of character--most insightful. The men in Saltash who worked digging out those tunnels. That whole series is really striking.

Here, such as it is, a sample of my recent sketching. This is the proud gentleman I told you about at Blithfield Hall. Proud to be a Bagot, this one!

Comments

[alt_frank]

(Likewise, Madame P! He does look like a venerable old chap. King of the Bagot Goats.

Goat eyes are quite odd, aren't they?

I did like hearing about your ramble. I might go on one myself, someday.

And thanks. Some of them are quite rough, of course, and I'm still working out how to make things less flat-looking. I've got an art book that has a bunch of charcoal drawings as part of it, and it's just really brilliant to see how a smudge here and a line there can really make something look so alive that you can imagine it moving if you look at it long enough.

I've been trying to draw the centaur, Firenze, but it's from memory and I can't get any of the proportions right. I don't think he'd be amenable to sitting for a portrait session, either. Or standing. You know.)

[alt_poppy]

Oh, my. No, I don't imagine a Centaur would consent to sitting a portrait. I wonder, actually... It strikes me that they might have objections to having images made of them. A belief that images have a power that compromises their own in some way. That is not to say that you oughtn't to draw what you remember seeing, only to say that you might refrain from mentioning it to any of them. Awfully particular, Centaurs.

I quite agree about goats' eyes. Sometimes I find them unsettling, the way they look at you out of slits, as it were. But they can be most expressive, despite that, and I do believe that what seems queer about them is a matter of my holding a prejudice. Too many childhood tales made them out to be devilish, you know, when the truth is they are no more likely to be sweet or evil tempered, mischievous or amenable, stubborn or energetic than you or I.

I'm hardly one to look askance at quick sketching, or at leaving some work in a rough state while finishing other pieces. You have a gift and it develops only by using it. I quite enjoyed seeing the way you see things with your pencil and your fingers. A flick here, a stroke there, quick hatching to show shadow or a blur of movement. You're learning all those things.

You had one of a woman. Before the Saltash pictures, I think. She was frowning and nearly three-quarters in shadow. Making a decision, I thought. One that mattered a great deal. That was just a quick sketch, but you captured so much in those few marks on the page.

[alt_frank]

(Oh. That one. It's a drawing of my mum. I have a portrait of her and dad, but sometimes I like to draw her doing other stuff, just so

You know.

Anyways.

You're right. The centaurs may get tricky about it. I'll certainly keep that in mind. I'd hate to give offence. Especially since he seems to be the one we get along with best, hey?

Ragnik can get touchy about odd things. Like food. But he mostly tries to do whatever Melli does, to show respect, and it took us ages to sort out that he found it really uncomfortable when he had to serve himself at dinner, because he wasn't sure how much he ought to take and we'd just go in any old order instead of by rank. But now Melli makes sure she serves herself before him, and that helps.)

[alt_poppy]

Oh, that's lovely to know--that the picture I admired was of your mother. I think we learn things about the creatures-or people-that we draw, and I like your idea of drawing her doing different things.

I've only met one or two of the Centaurs, and I'm not certain whether I've been introduced to Firenze or not. He sounds a bit more approachable than most.

You're learning important things about forging connections with other beings. Have you considered that you might have the makings of an ambassador? I hope one day we'll need to find people with those skills to serve in a Ministry very different from today's.

[alt_frank]

(Mrs L asks us to imagine what we want the future to be like all the time.

I don't know that I've ever imagined myself as an ambassador before.

Thinking about a future where there's a Ministry who wants me to work for them, and who'd want to work with the goblins and centaurs and so on like we've been doing, well, it's sort of like Sally-Anne's aeroplane, isn't it? hard to picture, and sort of fantastically unreal, but worth aiming towards.)